The Department of Education could soon extend taxpayer-funded federal college-prep programs to illegal immigrants, a move that would upend longstanding policy on educational grants as record numbers of migrants cross the Southern Border. 

The department’s Office of Postsecondary Education is considering including immigrant students in its so-called TRIO programs, which provide postsecondary educational services to low income, first generation, or disabled students at a cost of $1.2 billion a year. The issue will be raised during a subcommittee meeting on Friday, following a proposal last month that TRIO expand its eligibility to include undocumented students. 

This change would go against a 1986 federal statute that has prevented illegal immigrants from receiving benefits from TRIO as well as other federal grants, loans, or work assistance. TRIO, named after its first three programs — Upward Bound, Talent Search, and Student Support Services — boasts eight programs that help more than 800,000 low-income students annually with getting into college and staying in college.

Yet as tens of thousands of migrant children enter the classrooms of cities like New York that have been hit hard by the migrant crisis, the education department appears to now be heeding to the longstanding demands of immigration advocates that undocumented students enjoy higher education just like other students. 

“The Department proposes to expand participation in several TRIO programs to more students from disadvantaged backgrounds to align with the goals of the statute,” a January DOE proposal states, which came after several TRIO staffers pushed for opening up the programs at a public hearing last April. Expanding eligibility includes “adding language” to the program so that it applies to any individual who “seeks to enroll in a high school in the United States.”

Immigrants’ rights groups have been pushing for the change for years, arguing that the 1986 statute is unevenly applied as it does not bar immigrant students from receiving other Title IV student benefits, like TRIO’s counseling services. “Restrictive regulations” on federal student aid, the Council for Opportunity in Education said in a 2021 letter to the Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, “close the doors of TRIO services to promising students.” 

In August, the education department allowed TRIO programs in Oregon to serve undocumented students for the first time. “This waiver will significantly expand our ability to provide vital services,” Oregon’s TRIO Association said in a statement, “and support to undocumented students pursuing higher education.” 

“In California, I think this added language will be significantly beneficial for our programs,” a member of the subcommittee, Emalyn Lapus, said at the January meeting. “We are fortunate, California being a little bit more liberal… that our colleges do accept undocumented students.” 

15 states — including four with the largest numbers of undocumented immigrants, California, Illinois, New York, and Texas — offer state financial aid to students who qualify, regardless of their immigration status. 

One out of every three students enrolled in higher education in the US are first- and second-generation immigrant and international students, the Higher Ed Migration Portal reports. Undocumented students constitute more than 400,000 of the 18 million college students in America, or around 2 percent — a number which would be poised to grow pending a change in TRIO rules.